‘Only murders in the building’ was one of the great television revelations of last year. Using an ingenious mix between comedy and suspense, the series starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short offered a cocktail that hooked, taking true crime fashion as a reference to take it to unexplored limits until then.
The question that remained was whether ‘Only murders in the building’ was going to be able to retain its freshness in an inevitable second season that Disney + premieres this Tuesday, June 28. In the absence of seeing it complete -for now I have had the opportunity to see its first four episodes-, It is still a very good series but without reaching the brilliance that its first batch of episodes reached.
less balanced
Those who saw the first season will already know perfectly well the crime to be investigated in the second -here we go from the death of Tim Kono to that of Bunny-. Out there the series feels like a natural extension instead of a sequel planned on the fly due to its great success, but in return this start of the second season leaves with the feeling that too many fronts are opened, thus overloading the mystery to be solved.
This is due to a matter of focus, since several subplots appear that do not always convey the idea that they are well connected to the case, which leads to a sense of dispersion that never occurred in the first installment. From the new characters to giving more weight to other inhabitants of the Arconiaone of the consequences of this is that the leading trio has less room to shine together.
In fact, everything related to being doing a podcast loses presence, partly due to certain tricks that the person behind what happened seems to be using, which takes away a certain charm from the series. In the first season that was an essential factor to unite them, along with the differences between the protagonists and what united them, while here all that has a much more limited weight.
The team behind ‘Only murders in the building’ then takes the opportunity to give more weight to the specific subplots of each of them, including new characters incidentally. Additions are appreciated. Amy Schumerwhich in its own way fills the gap occupied by Sting in the first, Cara Delevingne Y Shirley McLainebut his individual contribution is not entirely clear to me that it compensates for the fact that the series dilutes one of his main virtues in return.
And it is that in the first season there was much to celebrate, but nothing would have been the same without the great chemistry between Gomez, Martin and Short. Whether it is because it does not want to repeat itself or because everything simply does not seem as perfectly measured as in its predecessor, here it is given less weight, in exchange for its protagonists also showing greater versatility by having a greater number of dramatic elements to play with. .
It shines but with less intensity
Of course, ‘Only murders in the building’ maintains its ability to amuse us intact, especially when it uses the target mood. In fact, she is not even afraid to laugh at herself on more than one occasion or play with eccentric ingredients, but never let them take over the show.
To put it another way, the first season was a delight in which everything seemed to fall almost effortlessly into place, whereas here things get complicated and that clairvoyance that ‘Only murders in the building’ gave off never shines here with the same splendor. And of course, it is not the same to have your favorite dish perfectly cooked than a version that changes ingredients for others that you like less and is not at the ideal point for you when you had full confidence in the chef.
That said, ‘Only murders in the building’ still very entertaining, its three protagonists continue to be just as inspired and there are many scenes that work almost perfectly -a great moment in which the ceiling has a great role-. Its charm is still there, but certain decisions by the writing team have caused it to be somewhat cloudy and even blurry at times.
In short
The second season of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ is not as good as its predecessor, but it’s very worth it. All in all, I hope that the series does not continue beyond here -or at most that they make a third installment and that’s it-, both for a matter of plausibility and because I would not want to end up tired of it or its characters. However, the first installment started well but did not stop growing until its great end and perhaps the same thing happens here. It doesn’t look like it, but I hope so.